In the field of the beverage production industry it is known to use plastics material containers, these plastics material containers being produced by a shaping procedure, and in particular a blow moulding procedure, from plastics material pre-forms. In this case, blow wheels are usually provided, on which a plurality of blowing stations are arranged, the plastics material pre-forms being expanded inside these blowing stations by being acted upon with compressed air against an inner wall of the corresponding blow mould.
For many beverages it is necessary in this case for them to be filled under aseptic conditions. In this case it is known that a sterilization process for the aseptic filling begins with the sterilization of the already finished bottles in a clean room provided for them. All the processes carried out previously in the prior art, such as the production of pre-forms, the conveying thereof, the heating thereof and the blowing thereof to form a bottle take place in a non-sterile environment. In this case it is necessary for a relatively large area, namely that of the finished plastic bottle, to be sterilized.
The sterilization of containers which are to be filled with a delicate filled product can be carried out for example by the filled product being heated and filled hot and by the inside of the bottle being jointly sterilized with the hot filling product. In addition, it is also possible for the empty container to be sterilized separately before the filling procedure and to be filled under aseptic conditions with the filled product sterilized at a different location. In this case the sterility of the empty container is achieved by chemical disinfecting agents such as peracetic acid (wet) or hydrogen peroxide (dry). To this end the containers are moved into a so-called isolator in which they are acted upon with the disinfecting agent which has to act for a specific time and then has to be removed again with a great outlay. In this case the difficulty of residual amounts arises. The aseptically enclosed filling means is arranged immediately adjacent to this isolator. This technology, however, is still relatively expensive.
It is therefore generally desirable, not for the plastic bottle itself to be sterilized, but the plastics material pre-form, since the latter has a considerably smaller surface. It is nevertheless necessary for the containers to be conveyed under sterile conditions after they have been sterilized, in particular in a continuous manner, at least until they are closed, in order to prevent a further contamination of the containers in this way.
EP 0 794 903 B1 describes a system and a method for the sterile packing of beverages. In this case a beverage container is formed from a shaped pre-form by blow moulding, next the container is filled with a sterile beverage and finally the filled container is closed with a sterilized closure cap. In this case different degrees of sterilization are controlled in different parts of the chamber, the degrees of sterilization being correlated with the degree which is required for the method step which is being carried out in the part of the chamber respective.
In this production method the entire production process of the bottle and also the filling and closing process are carried out in a continuous manner under sterile conditions. In this case an entire shaping unit of the containers is also arranged in a clean room. This method ensures a high degree of sterilization and cleanness of the containers filled in this way. On the other hand, however, the outlay for the sterilization is relatively high, since on the one hand large spaces have to be kept sterile and on the other hand a multiplicity of machine parts are also present, namely in the region of the blowing apparatus, which have to be kept sterile.
It may therefore be desirable to reduce the outlay for sterilizing or keeping sterile a shaping unit or blow moulding device for containers. On the other hand, however, production conditions as sterile as possible should be created for the containers.
An apparatus described in WO 2010 020 529 A2 for shaping plastics material pre-forms to form plastics material containers has a conveying device on which a plurality of blowing stations are arranged, each of these blowing stations having a blow mould inside which a plastics material pre-form is capable of being shaped to form a plastics material container, and the apparatus having a clean room inside which the containers can be conveyed. In addition, that region of the conveying device on which the blowing stations are arranged is situated in the clean room and a further region of the conveying device is situated outside the clean room.
With this apparatus a clean room duct is thus provided through which the plastics material pre-forms or containers are brought to the blowing stations and a further region of the conveying device is moved outside the clean room. In this way, parts of the shaping unit such as a blow moulding machine, i.e. the blowing wheel as a whole or the blowing cavities, are separated from the rest of the blow moulding machine by a clean room or a closed-off isolator.
The subject matter of WO 2010 020 529 A2 is thus also made completely into the subject matter of the present application by reference. The Applicants have established, however, that although satisfactory results can already be achieved with the above-mentioned apparatus of WO 2010 020 529 A2, a further reduction in the volumes of the clean room is nevertheless possible.